Deep Thoughts: Pause, Think, Then Solve

Where there is an easy alternative to solving a problem, we give up trying to solve it ourselves. Hence we are not able to explore our capabilities and discover how much more we can be

I came back really early from work to find out my brother had locked both of us out as he forgot to leave the backdoor-net unbolted. Usually, when such happens, my pops is somewhere in town, we would just locate him and get the key for the main entrance. But this very day, he was not in town and we found ourselves in a helpless situation. I was glad I did not spark and thus I was calmly able to think of ways we could go about unbolting the net-door.

No, the door didn’t open because I was calm enough to think or I wouldn’t be writing about it. We tried all the engineering methods we could think of, (using a cutlass, stick, our hands, etc.) and even explained scientifically why our methods were futile. Then we gave up.

You know when you try to do something and you find out you can’t and you start reminiscing about the past. That was what happened to us, we started remembering the old days when we could just buzz pops and then go get the key from him; as if our wishful thinking would will the door open. We finally became silent settling into the doom of waiting 6 hours till my mom came home.

In that silence, something happened to me. My mind refused to give up, it was like my brain was active on its own sifting through all that we had done, searching, breaking down the mechanics of how the bolt was fitted in. I saw the picture of the solution in my head for a split second and before I could trivialize the thought, I heard a voice from deep within say ‘go to the door and try again’. I was unsure as I moved but I found myself giving my bro instructions while we tried to open the door again and it opened so easily.

It was a joyful moment and my bro said something ‘if dad was around, we wouldn’t have even tried to find a way to open the door by ourselves’. This resonated with me and we discussed it. I took note of two lessons.

And the lessons?

One, when faced with a problem, we shouldn’t immediately seek for help, (what I call ‘easy alternatives’)  but see how far we can go at it ourselves by putting the mind to work. For example, When looking at a difficult math problem, it may be easier to just ask for help especially if it is convenient to do so. However, you might just find out that if you work at it long enough, you would find the solution. This is how we can improve ourselves and grow beyond what we already know.

Two, thinking about what caused the problem will not solve the problem, wishing for what could have been never helps either, getting at the problem with just instinct alone may not work (unless you got a lucky jazz), what works is after going through all these, we refuse to give up and finally take the time to PAUSE and THINK. That’s how the problem can then be solved.

So now whenever I am faced with a problem, by not dwelling on the cause of the problem or solutions that are unreachable and most importantly, refusing to give up I would push past the barrier of easy alternatives and set my mind to work thus discovering how much more I can be.

This is me hoping you would do same.

Jaa Mata!